nixCraft

Hi,

I want to know which crontab firl i should edit to schedule my script running and whats the difference between processing of /etc/crontab and /usr/bin/crontab?

Thanks

/etc/crontab - Configration file for cron job
/usr/bin/crontab - Binary program to edit user crontab installed in /var/spool/cron file

Basically, you need to use crontab command itself to install or edit other users job. To edit root user job:
To edit tom users jobs:
/etc/crontab can be edited using vi to install system related jobs such as backup. See :
How do I add jobs to cron under Linux or UNIX oses?

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Vivek Gite
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thanks for reply,
But still m not able to run my script through cron,I have done following things:
crontab -e root
26 21 * * * /hello.sh
This is my hello.sh file:
echo "test completed"
echo "congratulations"
mkdir gullu
where will it display the message and also no directory is made.

I also tried( * * * * * date >> /tmp/dates.txt) and this is done correctly.
Then whats wrong with my script and also do i need to write "./script" or simply "/script" to run the script?

early reply wud be appreciated
Thenks

You need to specify full path for hello.sh. For e.g. if hello.sh is in /root, enter:
Make sure script has executable permissions
The output is emailed to root user by default. To see it enter:
To log a message to a log file use logger command in script. It will send message to /var/log/messages file.
Shell scripting: Write message to a syslog / log file

__________________
Vivek Gite
Linux Evangelist
Be proud RHEL user, and let the world know about your enterprise choices! Join RedHat user group.
Always use CODE tags for posting system output and commands!
Do you run a Linux? Let's face it, you need help

thanks,my script got ececuted but i cudnt see any mail,when i type mail,its saying "no mails for root".
Also i wasnt able to open the link provided by u due to office policies and cudnt get any good information from elsewhere.
Pls tell me the how to use logger command to generate output to the console or log file.
Also i want to know that if my script simply prints "hello" on console,when i try to schedule it with cron,what will happen to the output,where does the output goes?i cant see anything on console.

Thanks in advance for your help.

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__________________
Vivek Gite
Linux Evangelist
Be proud RHEL user, and let the world know about your enterprise choices! Join RedHat user group.
Always use CODE tags for posting system output and commands!
Do you run a Linux? Let's face it, you need help

thanks fo rthe reply
So i can place any output from shell script through crontab in log file,that means i can not print output to console through crontab?
Like my script only prints text on console,if i run that script through crontab then what will happen to that output?